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3CThree-cushion

Carom at its hardest: your cue ball must touch three cushions or more before it reaches the second ball.

The table as a game of Three-cushion starts, with the scoreboardAs the game starts A game of Three-cushion in first person, over the cueOver the cue, in first person

At a glance

Three cushions before the second ball. A point is hard to come by, so a game is short.

Family
Carom
Tutorial
2 spoken, subtitled tasks.
In the career
Yes: a venue of its own on the tour after the world title.
Match length
First to 3, 5 or 10.
Played against
The computer on Easy, Normal or Hard, a friend at the same PC, in tournaments, or online.

The tutorial

The commentator talks you through each task, with subtitles. You play every one yourself, and play it again if you miss.

  1. Count the cushionsSend your cue ball round three cushions
  2. Three, then the second ballHit the yellow, go round three cushions and reach the red

The rules

As the game plays them, word for word from the rule book that is a click away in the game's menu and in the middle of any match.

The table and the balls

  • A ten-foot table with no pockets, and three balls a little larger than pool balls: a white, a yellow and a red.
  • Each player has a cue ball of their own for the whole game: white for the player who starts, yellow for the other. The red belongs to nobody. Your opponent's cue ball is, to you, just another ball to hit.

The opening shot

  • The red is on the foot spot and your opponent's ball on the head spot. Your own ball is on the head string, a hand's width to one side.
  • The opening shot has to hit the red first. A shot that reaches both balls but hits the other one first does not score.

Scoring

  • A point is scored when your cue ball hits both of the other balls in the same shot, and has touched cushions three times or more before it reaches the second of them.
  • The cushions can come before the first ball, between the two, or both. The same cushion counts each time it is touched.
  • Reach the second ball with fewer than three cushions and the shot does not score.
  • Score, and you play again from where the balls have come to rest. Miss, and your opponent plays, with their own cue ball, from where everything lies.
  • The first player to 3 points wins. Another target can be chosen under Settings, Game.

What is not a foul

  • Nothing is potted and nothing is called. Missing both balls, or hitting only one, costs nothing but the turn. There is no ball in hand.

Fouls

  • Sending any ball off the table is a foul: the shot does not score, the turn passes, and the ball goes back on a spot (the red on the foot spot, the striker's ball on the head spot, the other ball in the middle).
  • If the shot clock runs out the turn passes and the balls stay where they are.
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Try it, free

The demo is 8-ball in the Classic Room, with its whole spoken tutorial, a practice table and a computer player, for Windows, Linux and macOS. The full game will be sold only on Steam, at $12.99.

Get the free demoScreenshots